


And I'm straining to reach the light on the surface (light on the other side)

by MYuzuki



Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [37]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: ...how did I not know that was a tag until right now, BAMF Nyx Ulric, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor Nyx Ulric, oh look another plot point is here!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26663701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MYuzuki/pseuds/MYuzuki
Summary: Their escape from the outpost itself goes very smoothly, largely thanks to the fact that Nyx has already killed any enemy soldiers that might try to get in their way.They even make it to the closest haven to rest for the night, just as he'd planned.Except then the magic that keeps the daemons and monsters away, the magic that keeps the havens safe and secure, starts to falter and fade.
Relationships: Nyx Ulric & his Glaives
Series: No matter what’s in front of me (I’ll keep fighting til I’ve won) [37]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897525
Comments: 8
Kudos: 116





	And I'm straining to reach the light on the surface (light on the other side)

**And I'm straining to reach the light on the surface (light on the other side)**

* * *

Their escape from the outpost itself goes very smoothly, largely thanks to the fact that Nyx has already killed any enemy soldiers that might try to get in their way.

They even make it to the closest haven to rest for the night, just as he'd planned.

Except then the magic that keeps the daemons and monsters away, the magic that keeps the havens safe and secure, starts to falter and fade.

There's a lot of nervous murmuring amongst his Glaives as the runes scattered across the haven pulse intermittently with pale blue light, the magic thrumming through the ground sputtering on and off like a faulty engine in an old truck.

A knot of foreboding sparks to life in Nyx's chest, but he shoves it down and focuses on the situation at hand.

_The why of it doesn't matter right now_ , he tells himself sternly, even as part of his mind whirls, trying to figure out why the protective magic of a haven would suddenly start to fail. _Focus on keeping your soldiers safe, and then deal with all the rest of it later._ After all, whatever's wrong with this haven (he refuses to think about whether or not similar problems are occurring at _all_ the havens) probably isn't something he can fix on his own.

He has his Glaives huddle together, back to back so that they're facing outwards towards the wilderness, to ensure that no monsters or daemons sneak up on them from out of the darkness. He, meanwhile, tasks himself with endless perimeter sweeps, circling their camp again and again and again and again because at this point it's all he can really do.

A small group of flans attacks not long after midnight, and Nyx dispatches them all without much difficulty. A larger group of larger flans follows barely thirty minutes after, and Nyx roasts them with a series of fireballs without break a sweat.

There's a small flock of Ahriman two hours after that, and while that proves to be slightly more of challenge, he's still able to dispatch them all easily; he has new standards for 'difficult', he thinks, given everything he's been through at this point (and a bunch of insect-like creatures, whether they're daemons or not, are nothing compared to Glauca or the massive daemons the Niflheim General had fought alongside during the sacking of Insomnia in that other life).

Then a Cerberus appears, and Nyx is pretty sure that he can actually _feel_ his stomach sink.

"Well, shit," he says, and then warps himself straight at it as it charges towards the haven, its footsteps vibrating the ground as it snarls at the cluster of injured Glaives.

The battle against the monstrous creature brings back memories of another Cerberus, another struggle to protect someone from getting eaten alive by a vicious daemon.

He remembers getting the order to fall back, to retreat, because the battlefield was teeming with enemies and there was no way they could emerge victorious against that many opponents, not with the Ahrimans swarming and a Diamond Weapon being dropped from the sky and nightfall falling down upon them to bolster the strength of their enemy's forces.

He remembers spotting Libertus, leg injured and unable to escape on his own, trapped as a Cerberus had lumbered towards him with a furious sort of hunger in its gaze. Remembers standing there, his back against the rough stone of the collapsed ruins as his heart pounded in his chest, echoes of his sister's voice clawing at him, the memories of that horrific day in Galahd mixing with the reality that his best friend is about to get slaughtered right in front of him.

He remembers hurling himself straight at that Cerberus without another moment of hesitation, because he'd been too slow and too weak to save Selena but he was faster now, stronger. He wasn't too slow to save Libertus and he _hadn't been_ , although part of that had been down to luck and the fact that the daemon had gone tumbling down a deep ravine before Nyx could find out whether or not he was really a match for the gigantic beast.

There's no ravine here now,though, no way for him to luck his way into defeating it. There's just him, his blades, his magic, and the Glaives under his command that he's sworn to protect.

He hurls himself at this Cerberus anyway, the second it lumbers just close enough; he flings a kukri and warps across the distance, coming at the beast from the side and stabbing a blade deep into the flesh of its flank.

It thrashes, twisting around to snarl at him and snaps its jaws, and Nyx quickly warps away to avoid being bitten in two. He lands a short distance away, finds his footing, and then warps forward again, this time harrying the monster from above, warping to a spot just above its head and unleashing a torrent of lightning down upon it that sends it leaping away in a convulsions, its vicious snarls interspersed with yowls of pain as it tries to escape his assault.

He repeats the process two more times, but then the daemon catches on, rearing up on its hind legs and batting Nyx right out of the air when he warps above its head a fourth time; he goes crashing to the ground, ears ringing and vision swimming as he tries to take a deep breath and realizes that getting swatted aside by the massive paw of an angry daemon is definitely a surefire way to crack some ribs.

He takes one quick shallow breath and holds it, forcing himself to focus through the pain, and then warps away right as the Cerberus lunges forward with a snarl, saliva dripping from its fangs as it tries to catch him in a vicious bite.

He somersaults out of the warp and doesn't waste time trying to orient himself, just listens for the snarling to tell him which way to aim and then lets loose another massive lightning strike that sends the Cerberus scrambling away with a furious yelp, its flesh charred from the intensity of the blast.

Nyx takes all of ten seconds to decide his next course of action, and proceeds to warp to a spot just above the daemon's head for a fifth and final time. It tries to rear up and attack him again, but the injuries it had sustained in the lat lightning strike have limited its mobility and it can't reach him. Nyx has a moment to bask in the fierce feeling of satisfaction that causes him, and then he's plunging downwards, to stab both his kukris into the juncture just between the beast's skull and neck, slicing straight into the spinal cord.

The monster's body goes completely slack and lifeless, like a marionette with its strings cut, and Nyx and the beast's body both go tumbling down onto the ground in a heap. Nyx manages to extricate himself jut as the daemon's body begins dissolving, the flesh disintegrating and its life essence disappearing off to…wherever it went, once the daemon was dead.

He lays there, sprawled on the bloody ground, for what could be five minutes or five hours, and then Gertrude and one of the other Glaives appear, looming above him with concerned expressions.

"Are you alright, Commander?" Gertrude asks, mouth pinched as her gaze skitters across his torn and bloodied uniform.

Nyx huffs out a shaky laugh, wincing when the movement aggravates his ribs. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he assures her, hauling himself upright and into standing position in spite of the fact that his battered body would definitely prefer it if he stayed prone on the ground for a little bit longer. "I've had worse than this," he tacks on when Gertrude gives him a dubious look. "Really, I'll be okay."

"Alright," she says, still unsure but willing to accept his words at face value. "We still have another three hours to go until dawn," she adds, and he can hear a waver of worry in her voice.

Nyx blinks in surprise, not entirely sure where the other hours of the night had gone (he'd lost track of time sometime after the second flan attack, but even then he hadn't suspected that over seven hours had passed right on by without him noticing), then heaves a weary sigh, ribs burning as he breathes. "We're gonna make it," he tells her, makes ti come out firm and unyielding, a promise rather than a platitude.

And in the end, they do. Nyx isn't sure how, if it's down to skill or luck or some combination thereof, but they do somehow survive until dawn comes, the pale light of sunrise cresting on the horizon and washing everything in pales blues and grays.

He takes a moment to bask in it, the way the light warms his skin even as it brightens the landscape around them, and then turns his attention back to his Glaives, getting them up and moving.

It's horrifically slow going on account of everyone's injuries, but after a five hour trek across the rugged wilderness they finally reach the abandoned rest-stop where Nyx had left his car three days ago. It takes some effort to squish everyone into the vehicle, but they manage it and before long they're hurtling down the winding wasteland roads towards Insomnia.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so! As you can probably tell from the contents of this drabble, we have now stumbled upon one of our next major plot points (the protective magic of the havens going wonky). It starts off here in Nyx's corner (as you can see) but it's actually going to end up being kicked over to Noctis and his crew in the long-term (along with Luna, for reasons that will be explained later on in the series, during the story itself). ;D


End file.
